The Note
by Mrs. Brownloe
Summary: When Bella finds a mysterious note in her locker, she wonders who it could be from. Certainly not her best buddy, Edward.
1. Chapter 1

Title: **The Note**  
Category: Books » Twilight  
Author: Lady Gwynedd  
Language: English, Rating: Rated: T  
Genre: Romance/Humor  
Published: 12-18-11, Updated: 12-24-11  
Chapters: 10, Words: 7,671

* * *

**Chapter 1: Chapter 1**

* * *

**The Note**

**No infringement is intended upon SM's property by the writing of this drabble.**

E.

"_Dang! I'm late."_

She skid to a halt in front of her locker and quickly spun the combination. Popping the door open, she reached in to grab her biology notebook when she noticed something flutter to the floor.

"_Is that a note?"_

Heart thumping, she bent to pick it up just as the tardy bell rang.

"_Shoot! Late again_. _Banner will give me a detention for sure, not to mention what Charlie'll say_."

She stared at the note, feeling torn between worrying over Mr. Banner's inevitable punishment and the unexpected thrill the piece of folded college-ruled notebook paper gave her. She'd never gotten a note in her locker before.

Since she was already late, she decided she may as well make the detention worth it. She quickly shuffled down the hall and ducked into the girl's rest room. It wasn't her favorite place. The lingering smell of stale cigarette smoke combined with industrial cleaner and fetid odors was slightly repulsive but there was no other place she could go where she wouldn't be interrupted.

Locking the stall door behind her, she returned her attention to the note. Turning it over, she saw her name printed across the side in block print. She didn't recognize the handwriting but people used block printing to remain anonymous, didn't they? Was someone trying to be mysterious?

Biting her bottom lip, she carefully untucked the note. It had been tightly folded into that triangle thingy guys used to play finger football. Smoothing out the paper, she read in the same block letters that her name had been written in on the side,

_Dear Bella,_

_I was hoping that maybe we could hang out. Meet me after school today in the stadium bleachers, if that's okay._

_E._

Bella blinked at the note.

"Who the hell is _E_?"

**AN: This is my Christmas gift for you. I hope you enjoy it. I should be posting frequently until it is done. (And I know you'd most likely rather have Nightingale. That's coming)**

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**Chapter 2: Chapter 2**

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Mrs. Cope

Bella refolded the note and jammed it into the pocket of her jeans.

So, the mysterious E wanted to meet up with her after school? But who's E? There was no way she would not go to the stadium that day if only to find out.

She was half way to Mr. Banner's class when she had a horrible realization.

If she was given a detention, and she knew she would be, how could she meet with anyone after school, never-the-less this E person? Detention Hall was held right after school in the cafeteria. If she skipped it, the detention would morph into something worse—a referral to the Principal's office, complete with a parental conference thrown in for good measure. She could just imagine how pissed off and disappointed Charlie would be to be called into school for something like that. She'd be grounded until college.

What could she do?

She turned and walked to the front office. Maybe she could sweet talk Mrs. Cope into giving her a pass to class.

"Good Morning, Isabella. Are you tardy again?" Yeah, that happened a lot. Charlie used to say she'd be late to her own funeral.

"I know I should be in Mr. Banner's first period class right now, Mrs. Cope, but I'm coming from the bathroom, not home."

"Well honey, you didn't need to come to the office. Just go to class and Mr. Banner will admit you."

Bella lowered her voice to a whisper and looked around to make sure no one could overhear her. "But I had a surprise _emergency_. I don't want to have to explain it to Mr. Banner."

Bella was a terrible liar. If she tried to outright lie, she would blush, stutter, and twitch. She knew that while the note was an emergency to her, Mrs. Cope would see it differently. However, an unexpected start of her period was sure to buy her a free pass.

"Ohhhh, I see." Mrs. Cope nodded. Her skeptical expression changed to one of motherly concern. "Do you need any supplies?"

Ah, no. Even if she had started her period, the pads the school gave out were as thick as telephone books and were like sitting on a roll of toilet paper. "No thank you, Mrs. Cope. I'm okay. I just need a pass to class, please?"

"Sure, honey." Mrs. Cope quickly wrote out the note and handed it to Bella. "I hope you feel better."

"Thanks." Bella's smile was sincere. She grabbed the note and ignored the niggling guilt she felt over deceiving the kind lady. She'd bake Mrs. Cope some brownies tonight in hopes that would ease her conscience some.

She handed her pass to the weary-looking Mr. Banner who explained they were in the middle of a lab and directed her to her lab bench.

As she slid upon her stool, her partner smirked and lifted his chin in the universal guy sign language that meant, "Hey."

She nodded back at him and said, "'Sup, Cullen."

* * *

**Chapter 3: Chapter 3**

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Cullen

Cullen pushed the microscope towards Bella and said, "We're identifying the stages of mitosis."

"We are?" She looked dubious.

"Didn't you read last night? That was the prep for the lab."

"I read. I read. Did I understand? That's another question."

"I'll help you, Champ. It's really pretty obvious."

"I'm sure it is for you, Mr. I'm-Going-To-Be-A-Doctor."

Bella and Cullen's relationship was hard to describe. It was a cross between a teasing, competitive, brother/sister/something else mash up. He was the first friend she made when she moved to Forks from Phoenix last year.

Of course, he was gorgeous. And, of course Bella was intimidated by his appearance at first. She knew from the get-go he was totally out of her league to the point she didn't even consider it—or him—_that way_ at all. In Arizona, she had been one of the 'little people'—one of the kids who hovered on the edges, neither liked nor disliked, but mostly not noticed—so when she _was_ noticed her first day at Forks High by this hot looking guy, she didn't know what to do for about ten seconds. Then, she got over herself and realized what he was actually noticing was her complete inability to play volleyball without causing mortal danger to herself and others rather than her non-existent animal magnetism. But at least he was nice about it because when she inevitably tripped over nothing but her own feet, he reached down to help her up and asked, "You okay, Champ?"

And thus, her nickname was born.

They seemed to be in a lot of the same classes but that was probably a factor of them being in the same grade more than anything else. When the new school year started, she was happy to find he was her lab partner in Biology. By that time she was fairly inured to his hotness and working with him was great. He was funny and smart—a deadly combination in her opinion—and he actually seemed to know as much as Mr. Banner did about the subject, something that the teacher seemed to resentfully suspect. She figured Cullen's know-how came from his dad being the chief of medicine in the emergency room in teeny Forks Hospital. In fact, she knew he volunteered there a lot when he wasn't in school. He was handy to have around in biology class, just the same.

They soon finished their lab and that gave Bella a few minutes to sit around in class and wonder about the note.

Who the heck was _E_? She looked around the classroom and was dismayed at the number of potential Es there were; two or three of them in this class alone. She gave each a hard look trying to figure whether any one of them was the mystery note writer.

There was Eric Yorkie, who actually did resemble the dog. He was little, eager, and hyper and a bit too excitable for Bella. She imagined it wouldn't take long before she'd be tempted to roll up a newspaper and beat him with it.

Sighing, she scanned the next row of lab tables. Oh my god! Emmett McCarty was an E. Holy-no-way-in-hell, Batman! He couldn't be her note-writer. He and Rosalie Hale were inseparable. If by some weird alignment of the stars (and maybe Emmett's notorious sense of humor) it was Emmett who sent the note, she was going to ask her dad to enroll her in the witness protection program. That was the only way she could escape the plain fact that Rosalie Hale would beat the crap out of them both, wait for them to heal and then do it again. Rosalie wasn't one to put up with that sort of shit.

Shuddering at the thought, she looked down the last row. No one there had an E name… except…EXCEPT for Emily Young.

Oh my god, it couldn't be Emily, could it? Not that she had anything against girls liking girls, it was just that Bella liked guys. Besides, she was almost positive Emily liked guys, too. Almost. Was it a girl's handwriting on the note?

Stealthily, she reached into her pocket and fished out the folded paper. Checking to make sure Banner was on the other side of the room, she discretely opened it and studied the printing but it was no use. The writing gave no hint of whether it was written by a boy or a girl.

"Whatcha got there, Champ?" Cullen's voice cut through her reverie.

She crammed the note further under the table. "Nothing."

"Naw, you have something there. Is it a note?"

"No!" Bella was sure she was blushing twelve shades of red. She crumpled up note and tried to stuff it up her sleeve.

Cullen chuckled and tugged a strand of her hair as it hung down her back. "Champ? Have you got an admirer?"

* * *

**Chapter 4: Chapter 4**

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Angela

RRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNGGGG

Bella was never so glad to hear the bell at the end of class in her life. She scrabbled together her books and called, "See ya!" over her shoulder as she scampered from the room. She couldn't be sure but she thought she heard Cullen chuckling as she rushed out. Jerk.

Her next class was English but the teacher had asked that they meet in the media center to do research for an upcoming project. The whole way from Biology, Bella seemed to catch the eye of every person who had an_ E_ name, even Cullen's mother, Esme, one of Forks High's guidance counselors. Bella was smart enough to immediately eliminate her from the possibilities list. Finally reaching the library, Bella collapsed in the chair next to her best friend forever, Angela Webber.

"Hey, Bella. How's it going?" As far as Bella was concerned, Angela was without a doubt the sweetest person on the face of the earth. They'd been friends since they were little and met on the playground one summer when Bella had travelled to Forks to visit her dad. Angela was always kind and supportive and Bella knew she was lucky to have such a friend. She was sure to give Bella good advice.

Sighing, Bella said, "It's confusing. That's how it's going."

"What's confusing?" Angela's eyebrows were as expressive as most other peoples' entire face. Right now they were saying, "_I am listening intently and with great interest_."

"Oh, Ang…I found this in my locker this morning." Bella shoved the note over to her friend.

Angela carefully smoothed the creases out of the paper and scanned the note. "Wow, Bella! Are you going to go?"

"I think I have to."

"So what's so confusing about it?"

"I don't know who _E_ is."

"You _don't_?" Angela's eyebrows said they thought Bella was being coy.

"No, I really don't."

"But isn't it obvious?" Now they were saying Bella was stupid.

"No, it isn't obvious. Do you know how many kids there are in this school whose first name begins with an _E_? Lots! Heck, in my biology class there are two _E_ boys and one _E_ girl."

"Only three altogether?"

"Yes. Eric Yorkie, Emmett McCarty, and Emily Young."

Angela's eyes rolled as they joined her eyebrows in their condemnation. "Bella you're forgetting _Edward_. He's in your biology class, too."

"Edward?"

"Yeah. You know. Edward Cullen, your lab partner." Angela's whole head now joined the 'Bella's really stupid' bandwagon as it shook slowly back and forth.

"_Cullen_!" Bella was astonished. The librarian and Mr. Berty both looked up at the same time to simultaneously shush her.

Chastened, Bella lowered her voice and started scribbling vigorously in her notebook trying to look busy. She whispered, "No way it's Cullen. He…he…he treats me like a pesky kid sister."

"Bella, he's always got a smile on his face when you're around."

"That's because he thinks I'm an imbecile and he's usually laughing at me."

"No, he doesn't think you're an imbecile. I actually heard him tell Ben that you were one of the smartest people he knew. It's obvious to me that he likes you. He's always liked you."

It was Bella's turn to roll her eyes. "Not in that way, Angela. Besides, I don't call him Edward. I call him Cullen."

"Why?"

"Because he calls me Champ. We aren't on a first name basis."

Angela snorted. "You're such a goof, Bella."

"So therefore, if he wrote a note to me, he'd sign it _C_ not_ E_."

"Not necessarily, Bella. Maybe he feels it is time you two were on a first name basis. After all, you don't go around calling your girlfriend 'Champ.'"

"GIRLFRIEND!" Bella couldn't help yelling.

Crap. Berty was getting up.

"Miss Swan, I think you and Miss Webber need to sit at separate tables. You're supposed to be working on your research papers not discussing the latest Forks High gossip."

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir." Bella gathered her papers and books and got up to move over to another table, giving Angela's eyebrows an apologetic grimace.

But though Bella looked busy as she sat alone at the new table, her brain was spinning. "_Cullen? Edward Cullen?"_ Could he be the one? Her heart was beating so hard, she was afraid it would crash through her sternum. She put her head down on the library table and took deep breaths to fend off her sudden lightheadedness.

"_No."_

Cullen was too lofty to consider her as someone he'd like to hang out with after school. He was just kind during class and when he saw her about. That was just who he was.

"_No."_

He wouldn't write her a note and put it in her locker.

"_No._"

He just wouldn't.

At least that was what her brain was saying. Her body was saying something else. Her heart was pounding and she had this giddy feeling growing inside her chest that made her feel like she could fly. "_Cullen. Edward Cullen. Perfect Edward Cullen_."

Reality had a way of biting her on the butt, though_._ Nothing this incredible would ever happen to her. Nothing this amazing. Nothing this wonderful.

"_No way."_

She sat up and really thought about this, trying to talk herself down from the heights where her emotions were currently soaring. Honestly the fact was, she wasn't Cullen's type. He hung around cheerleaders and dated college coeds. Bella was just his mascot, a protégé, a nothing. "_No_."

As she thought this through, she figuratively clamped down on her racing heart, and her giddy emotions.

She wasn't his kind.

"_No."_

* * *

**Chapter 5: Chapter 5**

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Ben

Third period went by, leaving Bella as confused as ever. She was still convinced that Edward Cullen couldn't be her_ E_ but she didn't have the opportunity to think very much about it. Third period was calculus and Mr. Molina was giving a test. She hated derivatives but at the same time loved conquering their asses.

Forty minutes later, she felt rather triumphant as she turned in her paper. She was pretty sure she'd Aced that one. Now she was at liberty to think about other, more important things, like The Note. She gave her fellow classmates the once over as she went back to her seat. There was no one here that could be a likely candidate for being her _E_. In fact, there were no_ Es_ in this class, unless you counted Mr. Molina himself. His first name was Emil but if _he_ was the one writing her notes, she knew Charlie would have something to say about that—with his shotgun.

Bella could just imagine Charlie confronting Mr. Molina. Without a doubt if her dad had been born a century earlier, he'd have definitely been a Marshall in the old west—cowboy justice was just his thing. And Mr. Molina was sort of a mouse. She could just picture her dad swinging open the doors to the saloon, six-shooters on his hips and calling out the Evil Emil who was crouched over a poker table full of integrals. She giggled at the image she had conjured up.

"Miss Swan, did you find the test funny?"

Bella sat up straight, shocked to be caught out. "Oh, no sir."

"Why were you laughing?"

"Uhm…just thinking about how the Spartans are going to hand the Roughrider's their heads this Friday."

A gleam appeared in Mr. Molina's eye and he said, "You're darn tootin'!" and then he went on until the end of the class talking about the strategy the Fork's football team was going to use that weekend against their arch rivals, the Port Angeles Roughriders. Mr. Molina was an assistant coach and he lived and breathed Spartan football. Every kid knew that if they could get him going on the team, he'd forget just about everything else, including why Bella Swan was giggling in class.

"Gee Swan, next time wait until I finish the test before you set Molina off, okay?" Mike Newton was grumbling as they walked down to the cafeteria for lunch.

"Get real, Mike, you wouldn't have finished it if you had all day to do that test," said Tyler Crowley as he elbowed Mike in the side.

Bella just laughed and entered the noisy cafeteria to look for Angela. She saw her sitting with Ben Cheney at their usual table so she went to join them.

"Well Bella, have you finally figured out who _E _is?" Angela had a teasing sparkle in her eye.

"No. I have no clue."

"Yeah, you're completely _Clueless_." Angela shrugged noncommittally but her eyebrows said the equivalent of 'I can't believe you're so stupid.'

"What's an _E_?" Ben asked around a bite of pizza—clearly demonstrating a high school boys' lack of couth.

"Who's an _E_ is more like," Angela replied. "Bella got a _note_ in her locker from someone signed _E_ who wants to hang out after school."

"Oh, Edward." Ben said after he swallowed.

Angela held her hand out like Vanna White disclosing the final letter on _Wheel of Fortune _and gave Bella a knowing look. "See. Even Ben knows it's from Edward."

Bella stared at Ben like he had just said the most random thing ever but before she could reply, Cullen himself came over and sat down. "'Sup, peeps?"

* * *

**Chapter 6: Chapter 6**

* * *

Lauren and Jessica

"So Edward, what are _you_ doing after school today?" Ben asked. You could almost see a faux-halo appear over his head.

"Not sure exactly—just hanging out, maybe." Cullen looked down and smiled as he opened his water bottle.

Bella, who was sitting across from Ben, kicked his shin under the table.

"Owww!" Ben gasped in pain and doubled over.

Desperate to distract Cullen, Bella asked, "Aren't you eating?"

"Oh man, I'm already stuffed. I just ate in Food Science. We made spaghetti." He leaned back and rubbed his stomach.

"You just took that class for the food." Bella sniffed.

"You know me too well, don't you Champ?" He sat back in his seat and smirked.

As Angela rubbed Ben's leg, she muttered, "Evidently not well enough."

Bella shot Ang a look that said in no uncertain terms, '_Shut the eff up._' Bella's eyebrows could be as expressive as Angela's if given the chance.

"Well, I've got to go to the library. You know… get ahead on that English paper." Bella stood and shoved her half-eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwich back into her lunch bag.

"Going so soon?" Edward looked disappointed.

"Yeah. Gotta keep that GPA up." Bella was actually able to prevent herself from sprinting from the room like a complete noob—but only just.

When she got to the media center she decided to make up for lost time. That morning she got hardly any work done during English fretting about the note, so now she was going to buckle down and work on her research doubly hard—and distract herself while she was at it. She didn't like how the note was taking over her life.

She staked out her favorite study carrel against the back wall of the library and then dove into the stacks to find some reference material. She loved the library. She loved the smell and feel of the books and she especially loved how she could disappear into other worlds just by reading about them. Books were exactly her brand of heroin.

She was standing in the narrow aisle between two tall bookcases, lost as she read about the sounds and sights of colonial Annapolis, when two shrill whispers caught her attention. She looked around until she figured out they were coming from the aisle next to hers.

"I tell you, Lauren, she doesn't have a clue." Bella recognized Jessica Stanley's whine.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. Not a clue. She's wandering around school today completely fooled." Bella was sure Jessica would quit snickering like that if she knew how much like a pig she sounded.

"So, this afternoon, she'll show up and…?" Lauren's voice was full of malicious glee.

"She'll look like a complete idiot." More of that pig snort laugh.

Bella shut her book, shoved it back on the shelf and slid out of the stacks without attracting any notice. She couldn't do any more work here, now. She had to go. Shouldering her back pack, she stumbled down the hall to her next class, a sick feeling in her stomach. Had the note in her locker just been a set up by two of the bitchiest girls at Forks High? Was she going to become the unwitting target of one of their hateful pranks?

She _knew_ Edward Cullen would never be interested in her. She knew it. She's always known it. So why did it feel like her heart was breaking?

When she slipped through the doorway of her next class, she was fighting back tears of humiliation. Of course someone up there hated her because she also had this class with Edward and coincidentally, again he happened to have the seat next to hers. To top it off, he was there already.

Swallowing, she sat in her seat and nodded in his direction. She folded her arms over her stomach and dropped her head so that her long hair hid her face. She couldn't let him see how upset she was.

But it was no use. "Bella, what's wrong?"

The knot her chest rose to her throat and she struggled not to fall to pieces.

But she did notice he had called her '_Bella_' instead of '_Champ_.'

* * *

**Chapter 7: Chapter 7**

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Bella

Bella couldn't take it. The basketball-sized knot in her throat prevented her from talking and even if she could talk, she didn't know what she would say. All she knew was she couldn't sit next to Cullen and keep her cool so she flung out of her seat and ran out of the door.

Kids were beginning to trickle out of the cafeteria for the start of the next class, so she decided to go to the only place where she knew she could fall apart in semi-private, the same place she had gone that morning to read the note—the girls' rest room. But just as she rounded the corner to enter, she saw the two head beyotches of Folks High go in ahead of her.

Damn. She didn't want to face them, either. So, she turned around and surprisingly barreled right into Cullen's chest.

He held her arms. "Bella, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Her voice sounded like a frog's croak.

Cullen snorted and rolled his eyes but he didn't take his hands away. "Yeah, right. Come in here with me." He pulled her into an empty classroom, shut the door, and then led her around the front so they'd be out of view of the door's window.

"Now what happened?" He leaned against the teacher's desk so that they could be eye level. He still was holding her arms. The basketball was back in her throat and she couldn't talk. She just shook her head, ducked her chin, and squinched her eyes tightly shut trying to keep from crying in front of him.

"Oh, Bella." His voice was a whisper as he pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her. She was surprised at how good his arms felt and how nice it was to fit into his shoulder. She wasn't so surprised when she burst into tears. It was all more than she could take.

He held her as she cried, not saying a thing just rubbing her back and making soothing noises. It took her a few minutes before she realized that she was snot-sobbing all over Cullen, who may have not been _the E_ but she was beginning to realize that he was _her E_. He probably always had been but she had refused to allow herself to consider it before today. She knew, though, it was unlikely that she was _his B_.

Except…here she was, in his arms, arms that felt like perfection to her, but bawling big, snotty tears all over his t-shirt. This was definitely the coolest and the most uncool thing that she'd ever experienced. No wonder she was confused today. She really needed to stop crying.

With a few hiccoughs, she was able to pull herself back together and said, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have cried all over you like that."

He reached around on the teacher's desk and found a box of Kleenex. Holding it out to her, he smiled. "I didn't mind. But why were you crying?"

Taking the tissues, she wiped her eyes and blew her nose as delicately as she could as she shrugged. "I just overheard something in the library." She hoped to play it off as unimportant.

"What did you hear?"

She shrugged again and shook her head. "It was probably nothing."

"It wasn't 'nothing' if it made you cry." Cullen had a particular set to his face that told her he would get to the truth whether she wanted him to or not. "You're not a crybaby. Come on, tell me."

"You're late to class."

"_We're_ late to class but Mrs. Clapp knows where we are. When you left the room, she was coming in. I explained that you weren't feeling well suddenly and I would make sure you were okay. She told me to take the time we needed."

"Oh, that's good." Bella looked at his t-shirt and saw she'd left her mark there and tried another diversion. "I've messed up your shirt."

He looked down and said, "No worries. Look." He buttoned up the shirt that he had been wearing over it and the damp patches couldn't be seen. "Good as ever. Now, Bella, tell me what you heard." He folded his arms over his chest and leveled a firm look at her.

Sighing, she realized she needed to tell him something. She didn't want him to know that she thought he was the one who left the fake note in her locker so all she said was, "I heard Lauren and Jessica talking about setting someone up and I thought they were talking about me."

"Jessica and Lauren? You shouldn't pay any attention to those hos. They're full of shit most of the time."

"I know. You're right. Let me go to the girls' room and wash my face. I'm ready to go back to class."

"Okay." He seemed reluctant to let it go at that but as she was half-way out of the room, he followed. Standing at the entrance to the restroom he said, "I'll wait for you here."

"You don't have to, Edward."

He smiled broadly for some reason and said, "I know I don't have to. I _want_ to."

Smiling down into her eyes he added, "I'll always have your back, Bella."

* * *

**Chapter 8: Chapter 8**

* * *

Edward

Edward and Bella shared classes for the rest of the day. It was just the way their schedule had worked out that year. As usual, Edward sat next to Bella but their teachers kept them so busy they couldn't do much more than share an occasional smile. But this gave Bella some time to think as well.

First, she still didn't know who wrote the note. Edward _could_ have written it but then some random _E_ person could have as well. Or Jessica or Lauren could have written it as a prank. She still didn't know.

She could ask Edward if he wrote it but then, she didn't want to put him on the spot. Their relationship seemed to change today and she didn't want to blow it. Something about this change made her feel hopeful and that perhaps maybe, just maybe Cullen saw her more than a mascot. Perhaps he could see her as more than a friendly classmate. Maybe he could even see her as someone equal to him and maybe, perhaps, possibly, hopefully as someone he wanted to hang out with as _more_ than a friend. Her heart leaped with the thought.

She was unconsciously scribbling on her notes as the teacher lectured and was surprised to hear Edward choke or gasp or something. She looked over to see what was up with him and was surprised to see him looking at her notebook with a gleeful smirk on his face. She looked down at her notes and was horrified to see that her musings had translated themselves onto paper. She had written a stylized EC with a heart drawn around it.

If they gave out Oscars for self-inflicted embarrassment, there would be no contest; Bella'd win hands down. In fact, they'd name that award after her: the Bellies. Yep.

But for the moment, she was frozen in horror.

Then her mind started working overtime, ticking off alternatives. What could she do to salvage any vestige of her pride?

She could fudge the design and pretend like she never intended on doodling love notes to Cullen but no, that wouldn't work. The drawing was too clear. Figures—the one time her chicken scratch and drawing abilities didn't resemble a toddler's would be when she had been mooning over Edward.

She could embellish on the drawing and add someone else's initials to the heart, like she was pairing him with some other girl. But, no. That was just creepy and honestly, she couldn't bear the thought of Edward and someone else.

Or, she could cover it up, pretend it never existed and writhe in embarrassment for the rest of her natural life.

She opted for the third choice. Quickly, turning the page in her notebook she commenced pretending, writhing, and studiously ignoring Edward as he sat next to her, probably in utter disdain over her evident crush. How could she ruin what had been a very tantalizing possibility in one fell swoop? Figures.

As she sat there stewing in a big pot of chagrin, Edward poked her in the arm. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye and saw that he had pushed his notebook over for her to see.

Drawn in the margin of his notes was a heart and in the center was written "Champ."

* * *

**Chapter 9: Chapter 9**

* * *

Alice

Ever since Bella saw the heart drawn on Edward's paper, her own heart, the one that was pounding in her chest, felt like it would fly out of her body. She dared a quick look at him—she was still writhing a little from her earlier blooper—and when he caught her peeking, he winked. She noticed though, his own cheeks were tinged with pink just as hers were. Could he be worried and embarrassed, too?

When the last bell rang that day, she was at a loss. Her heart told her that Edward had written the note but her mind wasn't sure. Surely he'd give her a hint if that were the case. But he gave no hint, just simply said, "Bye" when they went their separate ways after class.

Her mind was making a strong case for the note being a set up. She hadn't been aware of some other underlying drama going on in the school that day, mostly because she had been preoccupied with her own, but that didn't mean there wasn't one. There always were at least half a dozen dramas on any given day in high school.

She needed to make a pit stop before going down to the stadium, so she popped into the girl's room and shut herself up in one fo the stalls.

"So, she still hasn't figured it out?" Bella recognized Lauren's voice. She must have come into the bath room as well. Bella knew that where Lauren was, Jess Stanley wasn't far behind.

"Nope. She's still completely oblivious." And there was Jessica.

"How can she be so dense?"

"I don't know. But she's going to be very surprised when she shows up."

"Are the others in the cafeteria?"

"Yep. Jasper and Maria are there by now anyway. I can't wait to see Alice's face when she sees them!"

"_Wait a minute. They're talking about Alice, Edward's sister._" Bella realized.

Jasper Whitlock and Alice Cullen had dated for most of this school year but they recently broke up when Jasper's old girl friend, Maria Lopez, returned to Forks High after she had moved away for a year. Bella didn't know the details but it seemed that the break up was largely a huge miscommunication between Jasper and Alice. As far as she could tell, Jasper only had eyes for Alice and she knew for a fact that Alice was head over heels for Jasper. It was so silly that they were the only ones that couldn't see it. If only those two would just talk to one another, they'd get all of this smoothed out. Geez.

Bella waited for the two harpies to leave, then went out to wash her hands and check her appearance in the mirror. She felt a lot better knowing she wasn't the target of Lauren and Jessica's malice but that just made her more curious about who was awaiting her in the stadium. Could it be Edward? She sure hoped so.

Just as she was opening the door to leave, Alice Cullen came in.

"Hi Bella. How's it going?"

"Oh, fine. How about you?"

"Just great! Prom committee's meeting for the first time today. I can't wait to get started!"

Nodding as she moved towards the door, Bella stopped and decided she needed to warn Alice about the trap that lay in wait for her. She wasn't really a close friend of Edward's sister but she liked her. Alice was always kind and enthusiastic.

Turning back to the girl who was standing in front of the mirror fixing her hair, Bella said, "Alice, do you know who's on the Prom committee this year?"

"Sure. Just the usual suspects: Eric Yorkie, Jess Stanely, Lauren Mallory, Angela Webber and me. Do you want to join us?" Suddenly, the voltage amped up in Alice's body and she almost glowed with excitement. "Come on, Bella, it'd be fun and we could use the help."

"Gee thanks Alice, but dances aren't my thing at all. I was asking because I just wanted you to know before you went to the meeting that I think there are a couple more people on the committee than you know about."

"Who are they?" Alice looked a little fearful as if she may have guessed.

"I heard Lauren and Jessica gloating about how Jasper and Maria were joining you guys."

Alice's glow suddenly dimmed and a wave of pain washed over her face. "Oh, and those bitches just wanted to see me squirm."

"I'm sorry, Alice, those two are evil but honestly, I have a feeling the only reason Jasper's on the committee is to be close to you."

Alice laughed bitterly. "Then why is Maria on it, too?"

"She probably wants to be close to Jasper but that ship has sailed. Listen Alice, just talk to Jasper. I think he still likes you."

"Maybe but he likes Maria more."

"How do you know that?"

Alice shrugged. "They used to go out."

"Yeah but that was before he met you. I _know_ it is you he likes best. Talk to him, please? At least you'll know one way or the other. I can tell you miss going out with him."

Alice sighed. "I do. So much."

"Talk to him, Alice."

"I guess I should, otherwise I'll just regret never really knowing for sure."

"You know you would. Go get him now."

A spark of determination lit Alice's eye. "Okay, I will. I just need to be brave."

"That's a girl. Good luck."

The two girls walked out of the bathroom together and parted ways at the school's entrance. Bella was glad to have helped Alice but now it was time to help herself. About halfway through the conversation she had had with Edward's sister, she realized that she should be giving herself the same lecture. Apparently, irony was alive and well in Forks High School. Bella knew she just needed to talk to Edward, too.

But first she needed to see who was waiting for her down in the stadium.

Hopefully, she'd be killing two birds with one stone.

* * *

**Chapter 10: Chapter 10**

* * *

Edward and Bella

Although the late autumn wind provided a snap in the air, the sun was shining brightly, a rare treat for Olympic Peninsula inhabitants. The few deciduous trees around had long shed their leaves and Forks, Washington was gearing up for another wet winter. That wasn't to say, Forks didn't also have wet springs, summers, and falls but its winters were a colder sort of wet and Bella didn't like cold, wet things. She spasmodically twitched, blinked and shrugged as she thought about it.

Clutching the straps of her back pack as it hung over her shoulders, Bella slowly made her way down the sidewalk that led to the football stadium. The closer she got, the slower she went. Maybe she should have asked Angela to come with her?

But no, Angela was at the Prom meeting with the rest of the committee. She hoped it was going okay for Alice in there with Jasper just like she hoped it would go okay with her and_ E_. It struck her just then that Eric Yorkie would be at the Prom meeting, too, so that eliminated him from the _E_ list. Also, she'd seen Rosalie and Emmett drive by on their way home just a few seconds ago, so he was crossed off the list as well, even though she'd never given him much of a thought in the first place.

_E_ had to be Edward Cullen. Oh, how she hoped it _was_ Edward. But what would she do if the person who awaited her wasn't him? Sighing, she scolded herself. If it wasn't Edward, she'd put on a happy face and 'hang out' like she was invited to with the _E_ person. At least the chief of today's puzzles would be solved.

The gate squealed in protest when she pushed it open and walked past the ticket booth. The small building shielded her view of the stands and she knew that she was seconds away from knowing the answer to the _E_ mystery. Her slowing steps dwindled to a stop. Once she rounded the corner all would be revealed and she needed to gather her courage first.

"_Come on, Bella. It's just to 'hang out.' It isn't an offer of marriage or getting matching tattoos. You've made entirely too big a deal of this today. Just go on and get it over with."_

Determinedly, she started forward again but looked at the ground in front of her, not daring to scan the stands. When she got to the bleacher stairs, she grabbed the handrail and climbed up the four steps that led to the bottom platform. Only once she got to the top did she look for her mysterious _E_.

And there, standing not four feet in front of her, was _Edward Cullen_.

"Hi, Bella."

"You wrote the note?"

He looked puzzled. "Yes. Didn't you know? You never said anything so wasn't sure you were going to come."

"I didn't know. You signed it _E_ and I wasn't sure which _E_ it was."

"So there's a line of _E_ people trying to get you to hang out?"

"Well no, it's just I never expected _you_ to want to hang out with me."

Edward smiled. "I've wanted to a long time, Bella."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

He fidgeted a little and looked over at the field, and then back at her. "You intimidated me. I was afraid you'd laugh."

"_I_ intimidated _you_? You thought _I'd_ laugh? But why?"

"Because you're so smart and pretty and I felt sure you weren't interested in spending any more time with me that you already had to."

Bella took a step or two closer to him, so close she could feel the heat of his body. "Would you be surprised to know that I felt the same way about you? I thought that you always saw me as more of a bratty, kid sister than anything more."

He snorted. "The one bratty kid sister I have is enough for me. No, I've always thought of you as someone I'd like to get to know better." He stepped closer yet and reached out to take her hand.

They stood together in the bright afternoon sun, smiling at each other in wonder, not quite believing how it worked out, both hearts filled with happiness, both giddy with the possibilities.

Edward's gaze glided over Bella's hair, her face, her eyes, then stopped at her parted lips. "I just want to try one thing..."

He moved closer, eyes focused on her lips until they were so close, he couldn't see them anymore. Bella's eyes fluttered shut and suddenly her world was defined solely by Edward Cullen. His arms were around her, his clean boy scent filled her nose, his hammering heartbeat filled her ears, and then his lips were soft upon hers and there were no more words.

This was the kiss she would remember months later as she watched him pin on her corsage before going to the Prom Alice had planned with her Jasper. She would remember it when she saw him off to a different college than hers the following fall and thought her heart would break. She would remember it when they came home at Christmas and she could still see the love in his eyes for her. She would remember it after her college graduation and he got down on one knee and asked her to always be his. She would remember it when she saw him waiting for her at the end of the church aisle as she clung to Charlie's arm. She would remember it when she watched him holding their first born for the first time. She would remember it every time he told her he loved her and every time she told him she loved him back.

She would remember it forever.

**AN:**

**Can you imagine, I wrote this whole thing without any author's notes? Amazing.**

**Merry Christmas, my dear friends. This is my gift to you. I hope you enjoyed it.**

**I love you and am thankful for your generous encouragement of my creative writing forays.**

**Thank you and God bless.**


	2. Chapter 2 Epilogue four Years later

Title: **There's No Place Like Home**  
Category: Books » Twilight  
Author: Lady Gwynedd  
Language: English, Rating: Rated: T  
Genre: Romance/General  
Published: 11-15-12, Updated: 11-15-12  
Chapters: 1, Words: 5,025

* * *

**Chapter 1: Chapter 1**

* * *

There's No Place Like Home

(A continuation of The Note)

My hands tightened on the steering wheel as I drove past the familiar "Welcome to Forks" sign. It had rained all the way from Seattle turning the week old snow to slush and making driving less than relaxing. My stomach was in knots and my palms were sweating but I couldn't tell if it was because of the driving conditions or because it just felt weird coming back here after three years of being away.

Since the last time I was here, I went from being a naïve, high school girl still crushing hard on my first boyfriend to an older and somewhat wiser woman and well aware of how places change just like people do.

I'd certainly changed, most definitely. I wasn't a dewy-eyed kid any longer, that's for sure. I still wore my hair long and the same style of clothing but they fit me differently now that I was a little curvier than I used to be. My face had thinned out and I plucked my brows a little more but really, I looked pretty much the same as I had when I lived here with my dad. It was just that now I was a woman and then I was a girl.

But the biggest change was in my outlook. Back then, I was a firm believer in true love and soul-mates and forever. Since then, I had discovered all that was nothing more than a combination of Mother Nature fucking with my hormones and propaganda. Literature liked to romanticize sex and so, like just about everyone else, I had bought into whole sale it when I was a teen. I'd believed I'd even met my soul-mate. Boy, was it a shock to discover he wasn't.

Shaking my head, I remembered bawling my eyes out the day I left for college. I had been accepted into a school in Florida, and it was too good an offer to turn down. Because my mom was a resident there, I could get in-state tuition rates and with my scholarships and grants, I could go to school almost for free if I kept my grades up.

My boyfriend was going to school in Chicago, also an offer too good to refuse, and though we made many promises to remain together, after a few months apart, our emails stopped, phone calls dwindled and texts became general. By the end of that school year, he was my ex-boyfriend. We hadn't formally broken up—there was no emotional Armageddon—we just stopped. I kept on waiting for that call that never came or that email that was never sent and I figured he was done with me.

I was hella busy, though. When I had a break from my student work load I mourned our defunct relationship, which was hardly ever—that five hour calculus class was a bitch—, but my studies distracted me and eventually my new friends diverted me even more. The last time I had heard from Edward Cullen was a goofy birthday card he sent me my sophomore year. I was sure his pre-med program had been keeping him every bit as busy as my studies did me.

I'd dated a few times since but nothing too serious. I didn't have the time. I was dedicated to making the best I could out of school. First, so that I could stay in school; to keep my scholarships, I had to maintain a 3.0 GPA and, let me tell you, that was tough to do in Engineering. I'd never worked so hard in my life. Second, I was determined to land a good job and I was almost there. I had a semester left and then, hopefully, I'd launch my career.

Though hard, I had put my love for math and science together and studied Engineering—Environmental Engineering, specifically. The only problem was, due to the damn economy, I didn't have a job lined up after I received my degree. I was hoping that would change as I got closer to graduation, so I wasn't going into panic mode yet.

I waited at a red light as a lumber truck barreled through the intersection and was surprised by an overwhelming wave of nostalgia. I cracked the window a little and inhaled.

There it was: Forks, Washington—the fresh smell of rain and evergreens, with a little bit of diesel on the side.

It was good to be back. I discovered I'd missed Forks.

I'd have come back sooner if things had worked out differently but my father, Charlie, had decided to travel to me for the holidays rather than me traveling to him. He said that Christmas in Florida was a welcomed change from the gloom of the Olympic peninsula and we continued the tradition. But this year my step-father, Phil, took my mom on a trip to celebrate their anniversary and so there was no reason for me to stay in Florida. Dad couldn't get off work because one of his deputies was out on paternity leave, so here I was back in teeny, rainy, homey Forks.

However, as I drove down the main street it didn't seem like Forks had changed much at all. The gas station still had a decimal point missing from the price sign so that regular gas looked to passersby as though it cost $411 per gallon. The diner seemed to have the same cars out in front as it did when I left and the blue plate special was still being advertised for seven bucks a shot. I was very familiar with the special. My dad seemed to live off of them when I wasn't around to cook.

The twinge of guilt I felt at neglecting Charlie made me pull into the Thriftway. I'd decided to make him a good dinner tonight, just like old times. He had to work today, hence the reason I drove a rental up from the airport, so I knew I had time to make him something good.

There would be no sneaking into and out of the one grocery store in this small town, a fact I'd sort of forgotten, and so it wasn't long before I was spotted.

"Why, if it isn't Bella Swan!"

I turned and recognized Shelly Cope, Forks High's front desk operator and the kindest woman I'd ever met. "Hi, Mrs. Cope. How are you?"

She rushed up to me grinning as though her face would split in two and grabbed my hands. "I'm just fine, Bella. We haven't seen you here in years! It's so good to have you home!"

Her last wore echoed in my ears_. Home_. Yeah. That's what it felt like. I was home.

We chatted for a bit and then I finished my shopping. I decided to swing by the station before going home, just to say hello to dad and let him know I was here. Besides, I had a sudden yearning to see him.

I pushed through the door of the small police station to see my dad sitting at his desk, frowning over a report.

"Hey, dad!" I called out.

The blinding smile that lit his face warmed my heart as he rose to pick me up, swinging me around. "Bells! You're here!"

I laughed. "Yes, dad. You knew I was coming today."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. It's just good to have you home again." He released me and held me at arm's length.

"When did you grow up?"

"Daaaad!" He was always treating me like I was twelve.

"I know, I know. You're an old lady. Listen, I've got a few hours' worth of work left before I can go. Why don't you go home and settle in. I'll take you out for dinner."

"Nope. It's my treat tonight. I stopped by the Thriftway and bought some ribs. You up for some bar-be-que?"

Dad's eyes lit up like I'd just announced salmon were running in the Sol Duc River. "Sure!"

We said our goodbyes and soon I was unlocking the front door to Charlie's modest home. As I discovered earlier, smells have a way of creating a déjà vu of feelings. Dad's house always smelled the same; dust, a faint whiff of Bengue, and gun oil. He kept a tidy place for a bachelor, even though the dining room table was used more for cleaning his guns than eating upon. Dad had his priorities.

I unloaded the car and decided to wash up a bit before I'd put the ribs on. It'd been a long day traveling and I'm sure I looked a wreck. I went upstairs and dug around in my dresser drawer trying to find an old band to pull my hair back and stumbled upon a folded triangle of notebook paper I'd evidently saved from my high school days.

Of course I recognized it.

Smiling, I gently unfolded the paper to read what I'd read four years ago that changed my teenaged life:

"_Dear Bella,_

_I was hoping that maybe we could hang out. Meet me after school today in the stadium bleachers, if that's okay._

_E."_

Holding the old note in my hand, I plopped down on my bed as I remembered that day and Edward. Just the memory of how we had been together warmed my heart. He was a spectacular first boyfriend and I knew I'd been lucky. We'd shared many firsts the year we were together and he would always have a sweet place in my heart.

I wondered what he was up to now. It was sad that I didn't know. Really, the only person from my high school years that I kept in touch with was my besty, Angela Webber, and that was because she was better at communicating than I was.

Angela and Ben were still a couple. They'd gone off to school together in Oregon and she was hoping he'd finally get her an engagement ring for Christmas this year. They were both going to be in Forks for the season, so we had made tentative plans to meet up. I couldn't wait to see her.

Smiling, I refolded the note and put it back in my drawer. A few minutes later, I was downstairs lost in the preparation of delicious baby back ribs.

After dinner, I called Ang to let her know I was in town and since neither one of us could wait to see each other she came right over to spend some quality and much missed girl time together.

Charlie settled down in his easy chair with a beer, content to watch whatever game was playing, a pleased grin on his face. I could tell he liked having girlish chatter and laughter in the house again, even though he pretended to roll his eyes. And Ang and I did revert to our teen age years when we got together. We were giddy and goofy as fifteen year olds.

"Oh, Angela, I can't tell you how good it is to see you! I've missed you so much!" I hugged my friend once more as we settled crossed legged on my old bed.

"It's been too long, Bella. I'm so glad you're home. Are you glad to be back to dinky, old Forks?"

"I have to admit I am. I never realized how much I missed the place until I drove here today. I guess I'm a bit nostalgic. Oh! You'll never guess what I found in here!" I got up and went to my dresser and fetched the old note.

"Do you remember this?" I handed it to my friend with a grin.

Angela unfolded it and snorted out a laugh. "Oh, yeah! Edward…you were so clueless."

"I know right? He told me later he'd had a crush on me since I moved here my junior year."

"It took him long enough to act on it."

"Seems I intimidated him." I remembered Edward explaining that then but I could hardly believe it. I was so relationally dense in those days.

"I guess you were a little intimidating in high school."

"No way! I was as shy as a mouse."

"Bella, you were so smart and had absolutely no poker face. When someone said something dumb, your expression told them and everyone else exactly how moronic you thought they were."

"You're kidding? Boy, you guys must have thought I was an asshole."

"No Bella, you weren't. You were just so much beyond the rest of us. We knew it even if you didn't."

I shook my head and Ang handed the note back to me and asked, "Have you kept in contact with Edward?"

"Actually, I haven't," I admitted. "Are his parents still here?"

"Sure. Dr. Cullen still works in the emergency room at the hospital and Mrs. Cullen's still a guidance counselor at Forks High. Since I've moved out of town, I don't see much of them, though."

I chuckled remembering Esme Cullen. "Did you know Edward's mom fixed it so that in our senior year he and I shared most of our classes?"

"Really? Why'd she do that?"

"Edward asked her to."

"And mama was matchmaking?"

"She was! I wonder if she did that for Alice and Jasper?"

"That would have been more difficult since they were in different grades."

"Oh, that's right. What did Alice do after graduation?"

"I think she ended up at the same school Edward did. She and Jasper both."

"Are those two still dating?"

"Heck, yeah! They're joined at the hip."

I fiddled some with the note I'd still had in my hand and asked, "Have you heard anything about Edward?"

"You know, I don't think he's come back to Forks since he left, either. I talked to Alice a while back and she said he's been trying to get through school as quickly as he can by doubling up, no summer breaks. In fact, I think he's probably graduated. He must be in med school by now, I guess."

"That doesn't surprise me. He was dead set upon becoming a doctor even when I knew him."

"You really haven't seen him since you left for college?"

"No. We went our separate ways."

"How could that be? You two were so tight. Did you have a big break up?"

"Not really. We just petered out. I was busy. He was busy." I shrugged.

Angela got a gleam in her eye. "Maybe he's home for winter break?"

"I doubt it."

"Come on, Bella. If he ever came home at all, now would be the time for it. Maybe he's here!"

"It wouldn't matter if he were, Angela. We have nothing to do with each other anymore. He's moved on."

"How do you know?"

"He hasn't contacted me in two or three years. That would be a big clue, right there."

"Have you contacted him?"

"Well, er, no…"

"So, have you moved on?"

"Of course…of course...I think." But I wasn't sure about that. I'd really never taken the time to consider it. I'd been such an expert in distracting myself with schoolwork.

Angela snorted again. "Maybe, Miss You're-So-Smart-But-Oh-So-Oblivious, he thinks you've moved on and you think he's moved on but in reality neither one of you has."

"It's been three years."

"And what have you done in three years?"

"School."

"Him, too! Have you been going out with anyone else?"

"Sure. Sometimes. Once in a while."

She just lifted an expressive eyebrow. Bella was very familiar with Angela's eyebrows. They had a language of their own.

"Well, I went out with this guy named Garrett."

"When?"

"Last year."

"And…"

"And, he was nice but I was… I didn't…We weren't…I don't know Angela! Garrett was fine but I just wasn't interested in taking things further than a few dates."

"Why not?"

"I was too busy for anything more. Engineering is brutal."

"Yeah, yeah. You should call Edward."

"He's probably got a new number by now."

"Have you tried?"

"Well, no."

Angela glanced around the room until she spotted my cell phone on my bedside table. She grabbed it and started scrolling through.

"What are you doing?" She couldn't be trying to call Edward, could she? She wouldn't do that!

"Ah ha! You still have his number in here!" She pushed the link as I dove across the bed.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" I screeched as she shoved the phone at me.

I scrabbled at the phone trying to end the call before it got started but I heard a faint, "Hello?" coming from it.

Oh shit.

I put the phone to my ear. "Edward?" I said hesitantly.

"Bella? Bella! Is that you?"

My throat dried and suddenly tears welled behind my eyes. Hearing his voice brought back such an amazing amount of emotions, like a wall had fallen and everything I'd shoved behind it was spilling out.

"Yes, Edward, it's me. How are you?" I managed to choke out.

"I'm good…great. Wow. It's so good to hear from you!"

"I…I…I wasn't sure that you still had this number."

"Oh, yeah, it's still the same. Er, uh…how's your dad?'

"He's fine, thanks."

"That's good. Uhm…Where are you?"

"I'm in Forks."

"Really? That's great! When did you come?"

"I just got here today."

"And you're staying with the Chief?"

"Yeah. I'm home for Christmas. You know."

"I'm home, too, doing the same."

I was stunned to hear we would be so close. Shock seemed to short-circuit my finesse and I couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't make me sound like a complete idiot.

After an uncomfortable pause, he asked, "So, how's Charlie?"

"He's good." I had to chuckle because he'd already asked that question. It seemed that we were both groping here.

After a few more seconds of excruciating silence I decided to put us both out of our miseries and so I said, "Well, it's been nice talking to you, Edward. Have a great Christmas."

"Oh…" Did he sound disappointed? "Well, okay then. Take care, Bella. It was great hearing from you."

"Yeah. Me too. Uh…you, too, I mean. Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

I hurried up and pressed end and turned to Angela. "I could kill you."

She had been sitting there during the whole conversation with her hand over her grin and a gleam in her eye.

"Why? You got to talk to him."

"Yes but it was so uncomfortable." I flopped back on the bed. "I could die."

"Die? Why ever for? It sounded to me that he was glad to hear from you."

"That's what he said but…he was just being nice."

"Bellllllaaaaa."

"Aanngggeeelllla." I mocked her right back.

"Edward wasn't ever just nice to you. He liked you, Bella. He loved you."

"Angela, we were kids. That was then, this is now."

"Are you going to get together?"

"He didn't ask."

"But he knows you're in town."

"Yeah."

"So…"

"Stop it, Angela! I can't deal with this now."

I guess the combination of the desperation in my voice and my teary eyes made Angela back off. She was a good friend, after all. She changed the subject and the rest of the evening was spent catching up with each other. We didn't discuss Edward again.

My dreams that night were weird. Maybe it was the sound of rain on the roof right above my head but I kept on dreaming about rivers and streams and creeks rushing by, cutting off the path I had to follow. No matter where I turned or which path I took, eventually some body of water would block me and I could go no further. I felt stuck and panicked and woke with a start to see the early morning light just beginning to filter through the curtains into my room.

I heard the engine of dad's cruiser start up and soon drive off. I realized that for the first time in weeks, I could sleep in and so, I rolled over and tried to settle back into bed but my eyes caught sight of the old note Edward had given me as it sat on my night stand. I sighed and remembered last night's phone call.

Edward's voice awoke a longing in me that I'd been able to ignore for years by bottling it up, shoving it away, pretending it didn't exist. But he was now only minutes away. I could see him again if I wanted. I could see if this feeling was just another case of nostalgia or if it was something more.

And I wasn't sure which I wanted it to be.

If I felt more than he did, I'd be opening myself to incredible heart break but a line from Tennyson popped into my head out of nowhere.

'_Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all._

This whole time I had been lying on my side, thinking about my recent revelations and staring hard at the note lying upon my nightstand. It took a moment before I heard the knocking on the front door.

I sat up straight in bed, my heart pounding. I knew exactly who it was. I jumped out of bed and peered out from behind my curtain. Sitting in the drive way was a black Mercedes Benz, very similar to the one I remembered Dr. Cullen driving and I'd even sat in several times back in the day.

Edward was here.

I heard the knocking again as I rushed to the landing, then remembering I most likely had a vicious case of morning breath, I ran back to the bath room, grabbed the mouthwash and took a swig, gargled, and spat. I looked in the mirror as the knock came again. Edward would leave if I didn't get down there soon. I pulled the hair tie out of my hair and quickly dragged my brush through it. There was nothing I could do about the sweatpants and t-shirt I normally slept in but Edward had seen me in something similar before and even less. I don't think he'd be surprised or weirded out.

I dashed down the stairs but right before I pulled open the door, panic hit. What if it wasn't Edward? What if it was someone else? Maybe his sister? Maybe his dad? It was his dad, I'd bet. He came to tell me that his son has moved on and not to bother him again.

I got a grip and told myself to stop. I was just psyching myself out and being stupid. I was able to freak myself out so easily over these things.

Whoever was at the door knocked again and I jumped. Swallowing and taking my courage in hand, I turned the knob and pulled the door open and saw…

_Edward._

He was every bit as beautiful as I remembered, maybe even more so. His reddish-brown hair was a tussled mess, as though he'd been running his hands through it like he used to when he was tense. His features were more defined—sharper—as though any lingering baby fat from childhood had been whittled away over the years we'd been parted. But his eyes…they were the same as I remembered and filled with so much emotion.

We stood there, hearts stopped, breaths held and stared.

I didn't realize I'd moved but suddenly I was in his arms and found that more than driving down Main Street, more than smelling the rain and the firs and the gun oil or seeing old friends or even my dad, in Edward's arms I truly was home—home at long last.

I could feel Edward's lips as they kissed my hair and at his whispered, "Bella," I lifted my head. The soft look in his eyes almost killed me. _This_ was what I remembered from our time together, this intense connection. I felt safe and loved and treasured and wondered what in the hell I had been thinking to believe that all this had been was just hormones and hype. This was real; the realist real I'd ever known.

When our lips met, I just about swooned and when I became aware of my surroundings again, I was sitting on Edward's lap, in his arms, on the old plaid sofa in dad's living room.

"I've missed you," Edward said.

"I missed you, too. Why did we stay away for so long?"

He shrugged. "I thought you were busy."

"I thought you were, too."

"Well, I was actually but I was never too busy for you."

"So, why didn't I ever hear from you?"

"I wasn't sure you wanted to hear from me anymore."

"Edward, I always wanted to hear from you. When I didn't, I thought you'd moved on."

"I suppose I just proved that's not the case."

"You mean to tell me the fact it's been over three years since we've seen each other and two years since we've spoken had only to do with the fact you thought I didn't want to see you and I thought you didn't want to see me?"

He sighed. "I guess so."

"That's just stupid."

"Moronic."

"Idiotic."

"Silly."

"Juvenile."

"And maybe a good thing," he added.

"A good thing? I think my heart was broken!"

"Mine was too, but we were very busy and maybe we needed to take the time to focus on our studies."

"Maybe." I thought of the sleepless nights, study sessions, panic attacks and general stress I had gone through over the past few years and realized he had a point. During my undergrad, I had been a crazy person.

But then I thought that if he had been just a phone call, text message or email away I would have had some solace, someone to confide in and he would have had the same with me in return.

"No, that's bullshit, Edward. We've always been better together than apart. I really missed us…us as girlfriend and boyfriend but more than anything, us as friends. I really missed my Cullen."

"And I really missed my Champ."

"I don't want to go without you again."

He nodded. "But you're still in Florida and I'm in California now, even further away from you than Chicago was."

"California?"

"Yes. San Francisco. UCSF Medical School and I'm still working like a maniac."

I nodded. "I'm finishing my Engineering degree at UF next semester. I'm still working like a fool, too, but it would help to know you were just a phone call away."

"I've got years left before I'll have my medical degree. I don't want to weigh you down."

I didn't answer him; I just gave him '_the look._' You know '_the look_?' The one your old teacher gave you when you told her your dog ate your homework? Or your dad gave when you swore you weren't making out upstairs in your bedroom with your boyfriend when he came home unexpectedly.

Yeah, that'd happened once or twice back in the day.

Edward did have the grace to look sheepish.

"Look Cullen, I tried living without having you in my life and it sucked. You're my best friend and we were stupid for thinking that wasn't important or necessary. I'm not expecting anything more than just Cullen and Champ but I won't do without that at least. Please?" I hope he agreed. I knew in my heart that letting him go again would kill me.

"You don't want us to be Edward and Bella?" He sounded disappointed.

I shook my head slightly wondering how he could think that after the kiss we had just shared. I was still on his lap for goodness sake! My arms were around his neck and his were wrapped around me as though he wanted to have me stay there.

I decided that actions were the only things that were going to prove what I wanted more than any words, and so I pushed my fingers through his hair and kissed him the way he did me all those years ago in the Forks High stadium bleachers when we stopped being _Cullen and Champ_ and started being _Edward and Bella_.

I guess I convinced him because we spent the rest of our Christmas break together and when we went back to our studies we called, texted, emailed or Skyped at least twice a day. I spent my spring break in San Francisco interviewing for jobs and we were so happy when I was hired by a premier firm whose headquarters was within three blocks of Edward's school.

I was surprised when Edward showed up unannounced at my graduation and even more so when later on that evening he dropped down on one knee and proposed. We were married not too many months later and found we were always home when we were together.

And, like Dorothy said in the _Wizard of Oz_, there's no place like it.


End file.
